Although last year's massive egg recall was linked to a Salmonella enteriditis outbreak at two facilities in Iowa, few politicians in this state have advocated new food safety rules or procedures. During his final address to the Iowa legislature yesterday, Governor Chet Culver (D) said his administration "provided the legislature and the new administration with a detailed summary addressing the historic egg recall last summer. This includes five proposed changes in Iowa law that will help improve food safety and employee training standards in the wake of the salmonella outbreak last summer." Excerpt from the Culver administration memo:
Although the new federal egg regulatory regime is aimed at the state's largest producers, a new, mandatory Iowa [Salmonella enteriditis] detection and prevention program should be enacted under amendments to existing law and the creation of a new Iowa Code Section 196.15 to complement the federal government's efforts to prevent SE contaminated shell eggs from entering into the nation's food chain from all of Iowa's egg producers.
There are at least five issues that are not covered by the recent federal egg regulatory reforms, that Iowa law does not currently address and that, therefore, unless corrected legislatively, may leave consumers of Iowa-produced eggs vulnerable to future SE poisoning. First, federal egg safety laws pertain only to egg farms that host at least 3,000 hens and do not cover smaller operations. Second, under federal law, producers have no legal obligation to report positive SE testing results to any federal or state agency. Third, there are no accreditation or certification standards for laboratories that conduct SE testing. Fourth, there are no legal criteria that establish the minimal level of training and competency for persons who are charged with the responsibility for implementing a new mandatory SE detection and prevention program. And, fifth, there is no clearly-identified funding stream to support an effective expansion of state egg programs.
I posted the complete Culver administration memo on egg safety proposals at the Iowa community blog Bleeding Heartland. I'm not optimistic that incoming Governor Terry Branstad or the Iowa legislature will support these ideas, but they merit serious consideration. I would be interested in feedback from the La Vida Locavore community. |
